Liquid assets

Dilip Cherian India's 'Image Guru' and a diehard observer of the capital on the fate of Noida's swish nightclub, Elevate, and if the multiple fashion shows in the country have set cash registers ringing

Dilip Cherian India's 'Image Guru' and a diehard observer of the capital on the fate of Noida's swish nightclub, Elevate, and if the multiple fashion shows in the country have set cash registers ringing

Closing Elevate, Noida's on-the-edge nightclub, may sound moralistic for a booze baron. But for Ponty Chadha who lost his monopoly in the liquor business in Ludhiana district of Punjab but bagged the Uttar Pradesh market, the Ludhiana setback may not have even registered. Even those who are inured to the quirky ways of the UP chief minister have been left stumped by Mayawati's decision. Whatever else it may mean, the announcement has strengthened Chadha's stranglehold on the liquor business in north India. He has had a strong presence in Haryana, even if the EC has put a spoke to his monopoly plans, and parts of Rajasthan are his playground.

Celeb buzz: The international and Bollywood quotient at the Lakmu00e9 Fashion Week in Mumbai kept the buzz alive Pic/ Pradeep Dhivar

Chadha evidently thrives on controversy and his indisputable political clout. Many recall that Chadha had established his monopoly in Punjab in similar fashion when the then chief minister Amarinder Singh practically handed over the state's liquor vends to him in an auction that lasted only a few minutes. His foray into film distribution was equally brief but memorable. Ponty's name appears in the credits of the Sunny Deol-starrer Jo Bole So Nihal, which got the Akalis seeing red. After all, there's no business like the liquor business. Chadha would certainly agree as the tills keep ringing cheerfully.

Fash bash

Back-to-back fashion weeks in Dilli and Mumbai may have brought some buzz back for the desi fash frat wracked by plunging sales in the deepening local recession. And to further gladden their hearts, usually low-key Kolkata hosted its maiden Kolkata Fashion Week organised by the Kolkata Knight Riders. Clearly, the designers' hopes were riding on international buyers and the orders that would materialise even as fashionistas noted the stress on the functional rather than the ostentatious, perhaps the obvious theme in these trying times.

In Delhi, designers were torn between attending the recent Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week (WIFW) organised by FDCI or the parallel Delhi Fashion Week organised by the breakaway Fashion Foundation of India (FFI). On the other hand the international and Bollywood quotient at the Lakmu00c3u00a9 Fashion Week in Mumbai kept the buzz alive. Of course it helped to have supermodel Naomi Campbell around, but clearly Akshay Kumar's "scandalous" stunt was more arresting than Twinkle had bargained for! But did the high-voltage shows set the cash registers ringing?